Modern Languages

Our Mission

The mission of the Modern Languages program is to provide students with opportunities to learn to speak, understand, read, and write other languages.

The study of a language different from one's own promotes communication with another culture on its own terms, through its peoples, literatures, histories and experiences of itself as a part of humanity.

While such communication has, in an electronic age, been greatly facilitated by technology, real understanding between peoples requires mutual knowledge and respect.

Language study opens a door into the diversity of our world, and so forms an important part of a humanities education.

Placement Test and Retroactive Credits

New students may take a placement test to determine their proficiency in French, German, or Spanish and as the first step toward earning retroactive language credits.

Click here to take the placement test. Once you reach the website, select Ohio Northern University from the menu and use the password polarbears1. Answer the questions as well as you can, without using a dictionary or other outside help. At the end of the test, you will receive a score that indicates where you should begin language study at ONU. If you have questions or disagree with the score, please consult the instructors for advice.

Henna Csont is a fourth year pharmacy student and French major from Fairport, NY.  She has been playing the saxophone since she was nine years old.  She starred in an alto saxophone solo for the ONU Wind Orchestra performance of "Holy Roller" by contemporary composer Libby Larsen on February 28, 2013.  She loves speaking French and traveling the world.